Ticonchew

hmm. That makes sense. So much for a cheap compression increase. Today I fooled around with different degrees of timing advance and carb tuning. Throughout it still ran too hot and even loosened the clutch retaining bolt again. This is not normal. I believe I may have higher compression than 11:1 somehow. I'm going to double check cam timing and that the cam chain is not too tight. If I am still having problems I will just go back to the stock head. I'm confused that through all of my research on this conversion I never found someone with a similar problem. I am either missing something or people don't run there 11:1 bandits with stock ignition in 95+ degree weather.

Does anyone think that I could have retarded my ignition timing when changing back to stock? I understand this can facilitate quick overheating. What about advancing it a degree or 2? Maybe that will help with the heat?

Ok. So I just replaced the starter and it didn't fix my issue. So I did some more trouble shooting and gixer1460 was spot on. Clutch retaining bolt had come loose. I just took it for a short ride to get some higher octane fuel and it is still running really hot. Hot enough to make the oil smoke out the crankcase breather again. It ran fine, but now I have to address the mildly lean fuel mixture. Could this be causing my heat issue? Thanks again gixer1460 for the spot on advice and gixerjonah for pointing it out again for me.

Nope. It sounds like a dying starter motor/dying battery. It turns the motor over a few times very slowly then is stops all together. But I will hopefully know for sure upon replacing the starter.

So I finally got my other battery fully charged/installed yesterday and the starter is still having a hard time turning the motor over. This leads me to believe it's the starter itself that is faulty. I'm replacing it with my spare tonight and hopefully going on a very long ride.

I don't have it advanced any longer. I put it back to stock when I installed the DOT head.

Gizzer1460- thank you very much for the response. I am using the bandit ignition and I had the timing advanced to about 5 degrees but I was under the impression the advance would have a negative effect with the higher compression. Working through some of these issues it seems that I do have a few different smaller, unconnected issues that need to be addressed. I'll post back as I figure them out. Please continue to throw your ideas at me while I'm working through all of this.

Strima- I checked cam timing yesterday when I installed the head. Oilyspanner- I'll double check the battery. If it was low would it still put out over 12 volts?

I just checked all connections associated with the starter. Battery terminals, positive starter connection, relay (they where all clean and tight). The starter will now not turn the bike over at all. The relay clicks and the starter whines.

Cam timing?

So I just went to start the bike after it cooled off for an hour, or so, and it wont start at all. The starter is running really slow/just whining and not turning the engine over. Starter fried? Why now?

So yesterday I installed a DOT head onto my 2003 b12s. I'm running a dale walker stage 2 kit, k & n pods, yoshimura can/mid pipe ( the midpipe leaks at the connection with the headers possibly causing a lean fuel mixture). No advance on ignition. Valve clearances are set to spec. PAIR system removed. I have low octain gas in the tank at the moment and I just did an oil change. It's 90+ degrees here and above 85% humidity. When the bike warms up the oil starts to steam from the crankcase breather and the oil fill hole (when I remove plug). It also will not start. The motor turns over really slowly in a chugging fashion. The more I try to start it the slower it chugs until it just stops. The battery is just above 12 volts. I'm also getting some pre ignition or detonation ( I'm not sure which one) when it's hot and under heavy load. Any ideas? Am I running too lean and overheating? Is it my starter overheating? Is 11:1 too high for such hot weather? I'm guessing the low octain fuel is the source of my ignition issues. Thank you in advance! This is the first time I've needed to post anything but I have always found a ton of useful and well thought out info here.